Full Metal Alchemist II: Nostalgia
by StephMB
Summary: This is post movie so there are spoilers! It's supposed to be like a second movie and as for a complete summary, I can't explain so I guess you'll just have to read. R&R pleez
1. Chapter 1

New York  
1952  
Ed jumped to his left and got hit with Al's right hand. "Shit!" Ed exclaimed as he hit the ground and forced himself up. "When did you get so good? I can't even get a punch in." Ed asked after being blocked.  
Al chuckled and said, "You never could because you were always so short. Besides, I trained with sensei after you left. You remember her old saying, 'In order to train the mind, you must first train the body.'"  
"Yeah, I know. HEY! Who are you calling so short that he would get eaten if sitting on a grain of rice?!" Ed said as he tried and failed to block Al's side kick.  
"Brother! I didn't say that!" Al said, trying to redeem himself. He blocked one of Ed's fakes and got nailed in the stomach.  
"Come on Al, I'm tired. Besides, our train arrives in half an hour anyway." Ed said, wiping sweat off his forehead. He had never seen a train station so forsaken. He picked up his bag and went over to a bench.  
Al sat down beside him, hoping they were in the right station. There were a few vendors that said they didn't mind if they sparred a little and were quite interested in the young boys' fighting. They gave a little applause as they sat down and went back to reading or whatever they were doing before.  
Ed stretched his legs out and told Al to wake him when the train arrived. Al said okay and sat wondering what he should do. He looked down at the floor and found a piece of chalk that a child must've been playing with. There was already graffiti in spray paint everywhere, what would a little chalk hurt? Al climbed off the bench and sat on his knees.  
He rolled the piece of chalk in his hand uneasily. He knew what was about to happen. Nothing. Ed had described over and over that alchemy didn't work on this side of the gate and that it was futile to try. Instead, they should concentrate their energy on adapting to their surroundings and finding a way to fit into the new world. It was hard to see all the familiar faces of their friends and not think about home, even just a little.  
He started with a simple circle and slowly put different designs in it. A bead of blood fell down Al's arm and onto the array. He must've hurt himself when they were sparring. Al sat looking at the long forgotten transmutation circle. He had unintentionally created the one they had used when they tried to bring their mom back to life. He squinted at the memories of his body in the gate. He would never tell his brother, but he remembers sitting in the gate for those years. He saw the faces of all who died and passed through, looking at him, not quite dead.  
He looked at the dirty clock on the wall to check how long until the train came. 10 minutes. He knew that he should wake up his brother now, recognizing that his brother would take 5 minutes to actually acknowledge him and 5 more minutes to get his lazy ass off the bench. He looks at his brother, his chest rising and falling as he breathes. Breaths assuring that he is still alive and reminds him that they're together again. That they're both alive.  
Placing his hands just above the array, he prays a silent prayer. He himself had stopped believing a while ago, just as his brother had, but maybe, with a little help- He placed his hand on the circle wanting to do something, anything, to get hope back. A little transmutation would be sufficient, even if it just moved a stone. He knew that if he were at home, that complicated of an array would do much more than move a stone. He thought he saw a faint light appear as the early train screeched into the train station but convinced himself that it was just the lights of the train.  
They boarded the train just as the doors were closing. As usual, Ed took forever to wake up. When the train had left, one of the vendors who had watched Al draw went over to the bench. He looked down at a complicated circle and a small statue of the guy that had been sleeping on the bench.

Ed somehow managed to fall asleep again on the train. They were only going to Queens where they had found a cheap room that suited both of them. Ed worked in a restaurant where he could keep up to date with the latest information on the war. He wanted to make sure that no one else would try to open the gate. Any time he heard anything about Germany claiming to have a "special weapon" he became immediately interested. Al worked down the street selling papers, as he was not old enough to have a full-time job but also worked helping unload ships that came into the harbor.  
Al looked out at the bleak city. It started to drizzle lightly and many passengers had their windows up creating a refreshing mist that hit Al in the face. He had forgotten how much he missed the rain. The warm spring air made him not mind the rain. He thought it was quite serene. Al tried to calm his mind. He wondered that if he could find a way to do alchemy, if he could just open the gate… he wanted to go home. He wanted to see Winry, transmute…for God's sake he just wanted to go home.  
A small tear formed in his eye. He finally realized that every time he thought about this, he was just kidding himself. He wasn't sure that he could handle another failure so he thought about a plan that would work, no matter what. He would either be home, or he'd be dead. Either way, it was better than being here. This world was so sad, so poverty stricken, losing sight of what it meant to actually live life for what it was worth. He sat thinking the entire way home. Before their stop, he had half of a plan and a full mind of hope and will.


	2. Chapter 2

They got off the train and took the not-yet familiar streets home. There was so much violence in their neighborhood that it was amazing they hadn't been mugged yet. Ed was still half asleep as he put the key into their lock and turned it slowly. Al looked at his brother and sensed how much his job made him a mess of skin stretched over nerves stretched over bone. He came home from work worn-out and still stayed up to read the newspaper and cook. Al felt like he should help his older brother but he wasn't sure how. Maybe he should help around the house, to share the load. Ed wasn't meant to live alone though he would never admit it.  
Ed started on dinner and Al sat at the small, slightly broken table. "Is there something I can help you with, brother?" He asked, in an attempt to be useful.  
"No, Al. It's okay, I can handle it." Ed replied, not even looking at his younger brother. Al didn't need to see his face. He could hear the tension in his voice.  
"No, really brother, I haven't been helping you enough lately. I should do something-"  
"I said no okay?! I don't need your help. All I need you to do is to concentrate on adjusting to your new surroundings and work." Ed said sounding more than a little annoyed, bordering on the edge of yelling. His job gave him so much stress and he didn't really mean to be rude to Al. It's just whenever…  
"Brother?" Al looked at Ed like Ed had just hit him.  
Ed took a breath and let it out slowly. "I'm sorry. It's just it's been pretty hard trying to make ends meet and I want you to be able to live a normal life. Most boys your age don't have to work to help pay for where they live. If we were home…"Ed stumbled for words for a few seconds. "Well, we're not home so I guess it doesn't really matter then."  
Awkward silence followed until finally Al couldn't take it anymore. "Brother, I miss home too. I still believe that we can make it back. If we could just find a way to-"  
"Al, I've told you. We can't go home. We can't risk opening the gate again. What if someone else tries to attack our home? What then? Both you and I know that we would feel guilty as shit if that happened. Someone still has to close the gate on this side which means we'll be split up again. I don't think I could handle losing you again…but if that's really what you want. I'll find a way to send you home."  
"I don't want to go back without you, though. We can go back. Together. What if we brought back the Edward from this world back to life? You wouldn't be allowed here anymore and so you'd have to go somewhere… we could open the gate then and he could shut it."  
"Didn't you learn anything from our failure with mom?! That's human transmutation! Besides, alchemy doesn't exist in this world. Dinner's ready." Ed said with a relieved tone. He could eat and then go to sleep.

Al had the most restless night in a long time. He and Ed shared a room. Al looked over at Ed and saw him fidgeting around. Ed had dreams that he told Al sometimes. They didn't let him rest very easily. Some of the dreams were about home and about what might've happened if he would've stayed in Amestris instead of coming back. Most of these dreams were about their past which was exactly why he couldn't sleep. He might not admit it, but Al knew that Ed still blamed himself for Al getting stuck in the armor.  
Al remembered when he had first gotten there. He was extremely sick, (home sickness is what Ed called it) the first week. When they got back, something was different. Ed said that when he left it was the year 1929. A day after Al had arrived, the calendar had skipped and it was 1951. They had been there for almost a year now. Edward figured that the gate was not only a portal between universes, but also between times. Around the changing of the year (or New Years as these people called it), Ed and Al decided they should come to America to escape the final bit of what was called WWII by the Americans. It was what had been started before Ed left to go to Amestris.  
Al finally got tired of staring at the ceiling so he took his journal (a birthday present from Ed when he himself rejected any present at all.) and went to the kitchen. The bare bulb provided more than enough light and shouting could be heard outside. He heard a few gunshots and the running of feet. It was amazing how easily someone could kill another person.  
Al opened to the first clean page he could find and started writing about his day. He then became conscious that it was a complete waste of paper to write about his day that absolutely no one was going to read, and so he began writing what he had thought about on the train.

A few days later Ed picked Al up in an even more putrid mood than usual. He didn't talk to Al the entire way home. They had stopped taking the train because it became too expensive to take everyday. Anyway, with the warm spring air and their home only a 30 minute walk away, Ed and Al could use the exercise. Ed carried a gun with him, just in case. New York wasn't a place to be dealt with lightly.  
"What's wrong, brother?" Al asked as they reached the final block before their apartment.  
"Nothing, Al. Don't worry about it." Ed mumbled. He seemed worried about something and the way he didn't give a detailed and very anger filled answer meant that something really bad had happened. If it was just an annoying customer, Ed would've just called them every name in the book behind their backs and been better in half an hour.  
"Brother, you have to trust me. What's wrong?"  
"I lost my job okay?! The boss said he had to get rid of someone or else his restaurant would go bankrupt and since I had the least experience and seniority, I was elected the first to go." Ed said in a rush of bottled up anger and hopelessness.  
Al couldn't say anything at first. The fact that Ed hadn't wanted him to worry about it in the first place made him feel like a piece of dirt. His brother worried about him too much and not enough about himself.  
"Brother… You'll find another job. This is a big city with lots of restaurants in it-" Al looked over at his older brother and his heart sank. Ed was almost in tears.  
"We're getting evicted. The notice came three weeks ago. I couldn't pay the rent for the last 5 months with buying food and the train tickets. I have to find another job and soon or else we'll be living on the streets." Ed choked the words out. Being here had taken such a toll on Ed that he seemed to be in total depression. Ed didn't show it very well and Al hadn't noticed until recently.  
They arrived to their apartment and Ed sat in a kitchen chair, his head buried in his hands. Al stood beside him, not exactly sure what to do. He looked at his brother and felt utterly frightened. Not for himself, but for his brother. He had never seen Ed like this before. Ed had always been so strong but right now, he needed something. A familiar face, a familiar hobby, a familiar home.  
Al got on his knees and gave his brother a hug. Ed needed it. Ed sobbed that he was sorry. Al couldn't say it but he was the one that was sorry. He should've helped his brother when he first noticed that things were changing. He shouldn't have eaten so much. He shouldn't have done this, and done that. He blamed himself so much until he convinced himself that he was the reason they were getting evicted.


End file.
